Honda says China output halted at least till Friday

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Honda Motor said on Thursday that production would be halted at its four vehicle manufacturing plants in China at least until Friday after they were shut by a labor dispute at a key parts facility.

The No.2 Japanese automaker, along with the local government in Fushan, in southern China's Guangdong province, is in talks with workers at a parts plant there who walked out last week in a dispute, its China spokesman Zhu Linjie said.

"We are still trying to resolve the labor dispute with the help of the local government at the Fushan plant. We hope to resume production as soon as possible," Zhu told Reuters.

Honda, which competes with Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor and others in China, operates three car ventures with Dongfeng Motor Group Co and Guangzhou Automobile. It also has a small plant in south China making Jazz compact cars for the export market.

The Japanese automaker was forced to shut all four plants after workers at the parts factory walked off the job demanding a wage hike, Japan's Nikkei business daily reported.

Production at the two plants operated by ventures with Guangzhou Automobile will be halted at least until Saturday, while the venture with Dongfeng Motor and the facility that makes Jazz cars will suspend output at least until Friday, a Honda executive said.

The company still had no exact date, however, for when production would be resumed, the executive added.

The parts factory, which supplies transmissions to Honda's China operations, has 1,900 staff, Zhu said.

Overseas firms have recently been hit by a string of high-profile labor controversies in China, a key global manufacturing center. iPhone-maker Foxconn's facility in southern China this week saw its 10th suspected suicide this year.

China, which surpassed the United States as the world's biggest auto market in 2009, is becoming increasingly important for foreign automakers competing to expand their presence.

Earlier this week, Honda unveiled a plan to lift its auto production capacity in China by one-third to 480,000 units annually, to meet strong demand.

Honda shares closed up 1.2 percent, matching the rise in the broader Nikkei index.

(Additional reporting by Chang-Ran Kim in Tokyo; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe and Lincoln Feast)